Is This AI?

[Chesterton]

I stopped using Google for search years ago, but recently started using it again occasionally. The results page has something new on it, a section titled "People also ask", where it doesn't necessarily provide a link, but just answers related questions. I assumed this was done with AI, but today I received an answer which contained an opinion about food - "An American 'Full Yankee' is equivalent to the 'Full English' Breakfast. You can top this with brown sauce but no beans are allowed. If you want a breakfast with beans, go for the TexMex Breakfast Burrito which is much better than the British tomato flavoured mush."

So is this AI or not?

 

[AlexB23]

I stopped using Google for search years ago, but recently started using it again occasionally. The results page has something new on it, a section titled "People also ask", where it doesn't necessarily provide a link, but just answers related questions. I assumed this was done with AI, but today I received an answer which contained an opinion about food - "An American 'Full Yankee' is equivalent to the 'Full English' Breakfast. You can top this with brown sauce but no beans are allowed. If you want a breakfast with beans, go for the TexMex Breakfast Burrito which is much better than the British tomato flavoured mush."

So is this AI or not?

Can you get a screenshot of this? I might be able to help.

 

[Chesterton]

Can you get a screenshot of this? I might be able to help.

I'm using a really old keyboard and I'd have to look up how to take a screenshot. I've done it before but my memory's bad. Enter "english breakfast" into Google, and what I posted is the answer to the first question "What is the American version of a full English breakfast?"

 

[AlexB23]

I'm using a really old keyboard and I'd have to look up how to take a screenshot. I've done it before but my memory's bad. Enter "english breakfast" into Google, and what I posted is the answer to the first question "What is the American version of a full English breakfast?"

The answer is not from AI. It is from a cooking website.

American Big Breakfast - The Full Yankee - AmericanRecipes.co.uk

A 'Full Yankee' American big breakfast is 2 eggs, 2 bacon, home fries or hashbrowns plus Texas Toast or pancakes. Serve with a jar of sweet tea.

americanrecipes.co.uk

 

[Chesterton]

The answer is not from AI. It is from a cooking website.

American Big Breakfast - The Full Yankee - AmericanRecipes.co.uk

A 'Full Yankee' American big breakfast is 2 eggs, 2 bacon, home fries or hashbrowns plus Texas Toast or pancakes. Serve with a jar of sweet tea.

americanrecipes.co.uk

So...Google is just stealing other people's content? Or do they have agreements maybe?

EDIT: Nevermind. I just noticed the link underneath the question. I didn't realize that was related to the answer and didn't really read it.

 

[AlexB23]

So...Google is just stealing other people's content? Or do they have agreements maybe?

Google probably has agreements, as well as fair usage, as the quote is only a sentence or two.

 

[AlexB23]

But hey, @Chesterton , if you ever have AI questions and tech questions, just ask @JesseRaymondBassett , or myself. I run a private, offline AI on my laptop that is free from the chains of massive corporations.

Titus 3:1-11 devotional draft from May 2024

 

[Chesterton]

But hey, @Chesterton , if you ever have AI questions and tech questions, just ask @JesseRaymondBassett , or myself. I run a private, offline AI on my laptop that is free from the chains of massive corporations.

Titus 3:1-11 devotional draft from May 2024
View attachment 350808

Thank you for the offer. I might need that sometime.

But about the topic, I thought about it more, so I may need to rant a little.

First off, I realize it's a way for them to make some extra bucks, but from the user's perspective, it's dumb. I asked what I intended to ask. If I had wanted info on the Full Yankee breakfast, I would have asked for it. I wonder if I search for info about zebras, Google will give me an answer about giraffes, because other people ask about giraffes. It's dumb. Imagine at a restaurant I order a hamburger and the waiter tells me "other people order hot dogs". Great. I'm sure they do, but I didn't, and their orders aren't my concern.

More importantly - previously, Google gave only a list of links to info outside of Google (unless you asked about something Google-related). The links could lead to any kind of info containing opinions, ranging from the full English Breakfast is the worst, to the full English Breakfast is the best. I notice that each "other question" has one single answer, so now, among the umpteen number of different opinions which could be looked into, Google selects one. And it appears on Google's home page, looking as if Google endorses the info and/or opinion, since they are directly supplying the info. So what if someone searches for info on the U.S. Republican Party, and Google provides info from a site which says something like "Republicans are all a bunch of white supremacists"? It just don't sit right with me.

 

[AlexB23]

Thank you for the offer. I might need that sometime.

But about the topic, I thought about it more, so I may need to rant a little.

First off, I realize it's a way for them to make some extra bucks, but from the user's perspective, it's dumb. I asked what I intended to ask. If I had wanted info on the Full Yankee breakfast, I would have asked for it. I wonder if I search for info about zebras, Google will give me an answer about giraffes, because other people ask about giraffes. It's dumb. Imagine at a restaurant I order a hamburger and the waiter tells me "other people order hot dogs". Great. I'm sure they do, but I didn't, and their orders aren't my concern.

More importantly - previously, Google gave only a list of links to info outside of Google (unless you asked about something Google-related). The links could lead to any kind of info containing opinions, ranging from the full English Breakfast is the worst, to the full English Breakfast is the best. I notice that each "other question" has one single answer, so now, among the umpteen number of different opinions which could be looked into, Google selects one. And it appears on Google's home page, looking as if Google endorses the info and/or opinion, since they are directly supplying the info. So what if someone searches for info on the U.S. Republican Party, and Google provides info from a site which says something like "Republicans are all a bunch of white supremacists"? It just don't sit right with me.

Yeah, Google search has gone downhill. There is a process about how the internet is under decay cos of sponsorships, Big Tech greed, and polarization (where companies side with one party or the other) known as ensh*tification. I can not spell the word out, as it is a curse, but the phenomenon is real.

Enshittification - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Quote From The Guardian: Users, advertisers – we are all trapped in the enshittification of the internet | John Naughton

Guardian quote: "Take Google search that, once upon a time (1998), was elegant, efficient and a massive improvement on what went before. You typed in a query and got a list of websites that were indicated by a kind of automated peer-review called PageRank. Now, the first page of results from a search for “high-quality saucepans” produces a myriad of “sponsored” items, i.e advertisements."